A student has turned her experience of psychosis into a pop-up art installation to help raise awareness of mental health issues.

Erica Crompton has used neurological scans of brainwaves, multi-coloured T-shirt designs and a striking cut-up collage technique dubbed ‘brain surgery’ so she can illustrate the powerful emotions behind her illness.

Now she hopes the one-day exhibition – held in the window of Mind’s charity shop in Stoke – has helped challenge public perceptions.

Erica Crompton next to her pop-up window display inspired by psychosis

The 37-year-old, from Basford, said: “I wanted it to be something positive, rather than psychosis being in the headlines for the wrong reasons.”

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Erica, who is taking a Staffordshire University degree in contemporary creative practice through Stafford College, first started displaying symptoms of mental health problems when she was 19 years old.

At the age of 22, she was diagnosed with a form of psychosis and was later found to have paranoid schizophrenia.

“I thought my life was over and I lost several jobs because of my mental health,” she recalled. “But since opening up about my problems and joining a support group, I’ve come to realise I can do things.”

Erica Crompton with her window display at the North Staffordshire Mind charity shop in Stoke

She went on to become a freelance journalist and blogger, also setting up an organisation called Medfed, which gets people to share their stories to challenge negative stereotypes of mental illness.

Through art, she has also found a cathartic release. And now Erica has thrown her support behind Stoke-on-Trent’s bid to be named 2021 City of Culture, seeing it as an ideal platform to show how art can change lives.

She added: “I’ve also looked at artwork by other people with psychosis. Some of it uses MRI scans and the colours and sequencing of Prozac tablets.

“For one of my pictures, I put my face in a scanner. It was to show what it’s like to be trapped by a diagnosis.

“Four in 100 people will be affected by a psychotic episode. That’s not just those with schizophrenia. It can people who are bipolar as well.

“If you drank coffee all day, you’d have a flood of dopamine to the brain. It’s like that with psychosis.”

She came up with the idea of a pop-up exhibition as she had to organise an event on a shoestring budget as part of her course. Erica has also developed her ideas further through a creative portfolio.